


I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In

by wheel_pen



Series: Bedeviled [5]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8352493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: An ex from Erik’s teenage years runs into him and Charles at a coffee shop after their marriage. She realizes that nothing has changed, even though everything has.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The bad words are censored; that’s just how I do things. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to play in this universe.

 

Charlie paid for her drink and stepped off to the side to wait, the coffee shop bustling around her. It was conveniently located, but might be too busy for the quick regular spot she was looking to establish. As she turned to take in the décor, a familiar profile caught her eye and she stared dumbly, her brain refusing to understand why _he_ might be present here and now. Then she realized he was obviously just getting coffee, the same as everyone else here, and she chanced walking up to him.

“Erik?”

Gratifyingly he had the same confused expression on his face for a second. “Charlotte! Hello.”

Erik was the only person who called her Charlotte instead of Charlie. He already had a Charles in his life, and it would be too confusing.

“I didn’t realize you were back in town,” Erik went on, leaning casually against the counter. He looked good, wore a nice suit—a man now, not a teenage boy. “You went to, um—“

“University of Vermont,” Charlie reminded him. “Yeah, I got a degree in library science, I’m working at the Parker Library on 51st—“

“Oh yes, I go by there sometimes,” Erik nodded. It existed in his world; her employment was valid.

Erik said nothing else, just looked at her, halfway seeing through to something of more interest behind her. Still, she was suddenly self-conscious about the zit on her chin, and compulsively tugged on her windblown hair. “So what have you been up to lately?” she finally rushed out, her voice slightly high.

“I’m CEO of Lehnsherr Industries,” he replied, so casually. Like it wasn’t a huge deal to be CEO of a major company at his age. It was his destiny, really. Even when they were in high school he had known it would be his someday. “My father passed away a few years ago.”

“Yeah, I was sorry to hear about that,” she responded immediately. She wasn’t sure of the protocol for an ex-girlfriend in the event of a parent’s death; she had sent a card but not attended the funeral. “Um, how are you doing with that?”

“Well enough,” Erik told her. “Our quarterly earnings are up but the new regulatory standards are a b---h.” G-d, he sounded like he was forty. Charlie felt keenly aware of being an entry-level worker who still wore fuzzy slippers around the house.

“Oh, well—“

“Charles!” the barista called, sliding a cup to the pick-up counter. Erik reached back for it and sipped the drink automatically, grimacing at the flavor, and Charlie glanced around the room.

“Oh, is Charles here?” she asked. She couldn’t stop herself from sounding surprised, but why _shouldn’t_ Charles be here? Charles was everywhere.

“Yes,” Erik responded. He also didn’t think she should be surprised. “Oh, we got married finally. A few months ago. He took his time getting there,” he added, rolling his eyes. The fond exasperation was still the same.

“Erik!” called the barista, and Charlie saw that the name had been written correctly on the cup, with a K. Erik was very particular about names.

“He’s around the corner, come and say hello,” Erik invited, already walking past her with both of the drinks in hand.

She wanted to wait for her own drink and then leave, but she didn’t want to be rude, so she followed Erik, turning around completely to see him heading towards an alcove that she’d had her back to. Of course, he would put Charles where he could keep an eye on him.

An Omega at the table looked up from his phone and gave Erik a dazzling smile. Charlie knew him at once, though she might not have recognized him on the street—he had changed so much, being just a little kid when she last saw him. Now he was a young man, old enough to be married, and his cherubic cuteness had matured into an angelic beauty. No wonder Erik didn’t want to look anywhere else.

“Here,” Erik announced, plopping his drink down in front of Charles and taking the other chair. “It tastes like s—t, so I expect you’ll like it.” Charles grinned and Erik watched closely to see that he drank some, his eyes flickering over his Omega in search of any change that might have occurred while they were parted.

Once he was satisfied with what he saw, he reached out to the next table and dragged a third chair over. Charles’s gaze had already bounced questioningly over to Charlie, a polite half-smile on his face. He didn’t recognize her; well, why should he?

“Charles, this is Charlotte,” Erik introduced, and Charles’s smile immediately became warmer. “We dated in high school. I don’t know if you remember her.”

“Of course!” Charles claimed, shaking Charlie’s hand. She didn’t know if it was true or not, but she appreciated the effort as she perched uncomfortably on her chair. “How have you been?”

“Great, just great,” Charlie insisted, though her mind suddenly went blank on any details that might support this.

“What are you doing in town?” Charles asked after a moment, managing to seem genuinely interested in her, as though they’d met up on purpose. Across the table Erik’s eyes strayed to his phone.

“I work at the Parker Library, if you know it, I’m a librarian,” Charlie told him. She felt like Erik would be bored by the repetition, but she couldn’t exactly change professions right now.

“Oh, the Parker Library,” Charles repeated, with familiarity. “Yes, you have a lot of rare art folios there, don’t you?”

Charlie felt an instant of cookie-warm bliss at his understanding. “Yes, I work in the—“

“How the h—l do you know that?” Erik asked Charles, gazing on him with wonder and amazement. Charles was the only one who ever received that look, so intense and all-consuming.

Charles grinned modestly. “I know things. You might, too, if you did something besides _work_ all the time.” He turned back to Charlie, generously including her. “We’re on a cultural outing,” he explained. “We’re supposed to go to the zoo, to see the new panda exhibit, but somehow we haven’t gotten there yet.” He frowned, adorably. “I’m not sure why.”

“You refused to go any farther without coffee,” Erik claimed dryly, now thumbing through something on his phone.

“Oh, that’s right,” Charles laughed pleasantly. His mirth was infectious, and Charlie chuckled too, though she wasn’t sure at what. “What do you work on at the library?” Charles asked her.

Charlie was, actually, kind of excited about her job. “Well, we just received a collection of documents and sketches by a Swedish modernist artist, and I’m helping to catalog—“

“Gunulf Vavarsson,” Erik announced unexpectedly, and pinned her with the sort of look he used to give her, very occasionally, when it was just the two of them. “A master of contemporary Scandinavian portraiture, but extremely reclusive until his death three years ago. The Library’s upcoming retrospective should yield enormous insight into his process.”

Charlie could only stare at him, astounded by how knowledgeable—and interested—he suddenly seemed. Was a dead Swedish artist—whom _she_ was studying—really on the list of things that Erik Lehnsherr cared about?

Charles laughed suddenly. “You looked that up just now, didn’t you?” he accused Erik, indicating his phone.

“ _Art World Monthly_ ,” Erik confirmed. “Were you impressed?” He gave Charles a tiny hint of a smile, eyes smoldering.

“Always,” Charles promised flirtatiously in return. For a moment, the two of them were alone in the universe.

“Charlie!” shouted a barista, and Charlie jumped in her chair.

“That’s my drink,” she declared, standing. The heavy chair was hard to push back smoothly.

Charles valiantly spun his focus back to her, though Erik was holding his hand now. For Erik that counted as major PDA, at least the Erik _she’d_ known, if she’d really known him at all. “It was so nice to see you,” he enthused to Charlie. “I hope we’ll come to see the exhibition when it’s ready.”

“Yes, good to chat with you, Charlotte,” Erik told her blandly. They might have just been conducting a mediocre job interview. “Glad you’re doing well.” Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

She couldn’t drag herself away, though—there seemed so much more she’d meant to say, the next time she saw Erik. “Yeah, great running into you,” she babbled. “Congrats on getting married.”

Erik tipped his head to the side and blinked at her. “It was inevitable,” he noted, holding her gaze for a long, dispassionate moment until Charles reacted by scoffing at him.

“Inevitable. Cheers. That’s very romantic, Erik!”

Erik turned back to Charles once again. “Accurate, though. Well, I was beginning to wonder for a while there…”

Charlie hurried away to grab her drink and left the shop by the opposite door, crossing it off her list of possibilities.

**

Charles watched the young Beta woman leave, until she was safely out of earshot. “Why do you have to be such an a-----e sometimes?” he asked Erik. The question really deserved more rancor than he gave it, though.

Erik went the innocent route. “What? I would have offered to buy her drink but she’d already paid for it,” he claimed. “Do you need anything to eat?”

“No, thank you,” Charles assured him quickly, not letting him change the subject. “I mean, you used to _date_ her,” he emphasized. “She was your _girlfriend_.” Surely Erik could have been a bit warmer, had more to say to her.

“It was years ago,” Erik dismissed. “Very casual. I barely remember her.”

“Yes, I’m sure she understands that!”

Erik frowned at him. “Did I hurt your feelings, Schatzi?” he asked Charles. “Should I not have brought her over?”

To Charles this merely proved that Erik was _capable_ of empathizing with other people’s feelings, when he chose to. “No, I’m glad you brought her over,” he promised Erik. “I like meeting your old friends.”

“She’s not—“

“People you used to know,” Charles corrected himself. He squeezed Erik’s hand. “It’s fine, I enjoy it.” Erik’s teenage years would have been even more challenging had he not engaged in relationships—however casual—with people his own age. It had never bothered Charles, though he was only now appreciating the difficulties.

Erik gave him a little smile. “Good. Are you ready to go? See the pandas?”

His voice had taken on the patronizing/affectionate tone Charles was comfortable with, and he responded with his usual put-upon attitude. “It’s _cultural_ , Erik! Stop making it sound like a little-kid thing. These pandas were sent by the leader of China! I’m going to go to the bathroom first.”

Erik made sure he could see the restroom from where he sat. “Okay. I’ll be right here waiting for you.”


End file.
